8 Answers
8

I've never directly used the 81 as an engineer, but it has been used on several sessions that I've been part off.

I worked with one of the Foley stages on the Sony lot a few years ago. The Foley mixer used an 81. He told me about how he preferred it to other shotguns he's used. I was happy with the results.

One of the recordists on a gun shoot I was on had an 81, though, I can't remember the sound off hand. I also think that an 81 was used on a vegetable abuse or a metal impact session I did several years ago.

I have a good friend who has one, and I plan on borrowing it for some SFX sessions in the near future. I really want to compare the sound directly to my RSM191, which I love.

Also, I'm not sure if John Fasal uses a KMR81 at all, but he often uses a KMR82 (the long gun). He's pretty picky about his mic choices.

I've used the 81i quite a bit and it's a great sounding mic. I also have a Sanken CS3E. The Sanken has a bit more reach and a little more richness on the low end than the 81i but it is definitely a fantastic sounding mic and I would take it over a 416 any day. The 81i does well both on location for dialogue and in the studio for Foley.

The 81 is great for foley, as everyone seems to agree.
I've also found it very useful for ADR as it sounds close to most location shotguns, while having a wider (supercardioid) pickup pattern; which helps avoid any problems with overexcited talent drifting off mic.

I've used it about half a dozen times for ADR and Foley, and then taken those files into the mix. It was chosen to try to match the timbre of the on-set Neumann used in all cases. It sounds great and natural almost all across the spectrum and has great off-axis noise rejection, which is great for poorly treated or hummy rooms. It also doesn't pick up a lot of reflections even in tiny rooms, if you're okay with the tonality you get from having the performer really close and loud. Worked seamlessly for replacing a couple of clipped lines in a standoff scene on one student production I worked on.

Downsides: pattern's extremely tight (as befits a shotgun), which makes it tricky to use for ADR if your actor's really getting into the moment. It's also really, really bright up around the 6000-7000 range and required a little extra de-essing care in addition to the usual sorts of match-ADR-to-Production EQ scooping magic. YMMV.